Michigan Increases Opportunities for Low-Income Preschoolers to Eat Smart and Move More

Through its partnership with the Early Childhood Investment Corporation, Michigan is encouraging childcare centers to use NAP SACC to meet nutrition and physical activity quality rating and improvement standards. NAP SACC has been used in almost 100 licensed childcare centers, reaching more than 7,000 low-income children ages 5 and under.

• Each childcare center set and accomplished at least one goal to improve nutrition or physical activity for the children in its care, such as providing self-serve drinking water throughout the day or limiting screen time.
• Participating Head Start programs developed and implemented agency-wide nutrition and physical activity policies, reaching approximately 4,000 children aged 3–5 years. Examples include changes to improve healthy beverage options (e.g., offering low-fat milk) and support for physical activity.

Each local health department that participated in Michigan’s Healthy Communities project developed a strategic vision related to healthy food, physical activity, and/or tobacco use for its target community. Interventions were developed and implemented in each community with the goal of meeting or exceeding the strategic vision. The project has already seen several accomplishments, including

• Community park improvements, which have the potential to impact 4,800 low-income children and increase access to places where they can safely play. This includes a park with specialized equipment to ensure children with disabilities can safely play and be active.
• Installation of equipment to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit cards at 19 Michigan farmers’ markets.
• Cooking demonstrations, taste tests, and other nutrition education activities at farmers’ markets and food pantries, which reach almost 7,000 low-income individuals in Michigan each year.

• To maximize their impact, state nutrition and physical activity programs must form diverse partnerships among local governments, nonprofit agencies, schools, law enforcement agencies, parks and recreation, and community members.
• Partnering with experts and decision makers in early childhood development is critical to successful implementation of health programs in childcare settings. It is better to find out where obesity prevention goals intersect with early childhood development priorities rather than push obesity prevention as a new priority.
• Adopting policies and standards for nutrition, physical activity, screen time, and breastfeeding can help sustain obesity prevention best practices in childcare settings over time.